Carer Support Payment has no earnings limit (SSI 2023/302 reg. 14) #2345

What the law says

A carer in Scotland is entitled to Carer Support Payment only if they meet the earnings limit in regulation 14 (SSI 2023/302 reg. 4A(c), in force from 15 March 2026). The same condition applied before that date through reg. 14 itself.

• Reg. 14(1): no entitlement in any award week in which earnings for the preceding award week exceed £204 (from 5 April 2026, SSI 2026/170 reg. 12(2)).
• Schedule 2 computes the earnings as the Computation of Earnings Regulations 1996 do for Carer's Allowance:
  • pay less income tax, primary Class 1 and half of pension contributions;
  • profit less a notional basic-rate (or Scottish basic-rate) tax and Class 4;
  • a fraction of a penny is disregarded where that is to the individual's advantage (para. 4).

What the model does

carer_support_payment_pre_overlap tests residence, the year, hours (or a reported Carer's Allowance award) and would_claim_carers_allowance. It applies no earnings test.

Minimal reproduction

policyengine-uk 2.126.8 (6d89338ab). A carer in Scotland aged 45, earning £40,000 and caring 40 hours a week for someone with the PIP daily living component:

from policyengine_uk import Simulation
situation = {
    "people": {
        "carer": {"age": {"2026": 45}, "employment_income": {"2026": 40_000}, "care_hours": {"2026": 40}},
        "caree": {"age": {"2026": 50}, "pip_dl_category": {"2026": "STANDARD"}},
    },
    "benunits": {"b": {"members": ["carer", "caree"]}},
    "households": {"h": {"members": ["carer", "caree"], "country": {"2026": "SCOTLAND"}}},
}
Simulation(situation=situation).calculate("carer_support_payment", 2026)
# array([4495.4, 0.]): the full £86.45 a week. Law: nil, since net earnings
# are far above £204 a week.

Suggested fix

The Carer's Allowance earnings test in #2312 (fixing #2309) adds carers_allowance_earnings, which already computes the Schedule 2 equivalent, including the Scottish basic rate. A follow-up can:

• add a Carer Support Payment earnings limit parameter with its own history (reg. 14 as amended);
• gate carer_support_payment_pre_overlap on it.

It should land after #2312.

Related

Like Carer's Allowance (#2310 and #2311), carer_support_payment_pre_overlap also does not check:

• that the cared-for person gets a qualifying benefit (reg. 5);
• the age rule (reg. 4);
• the education rule (reg. 13).

Those are noted here, not filed separately.

Found in review of #2312 (PolicyBench UK round 2 audit).